Kahlon to announce decision on Sunday

According to the poll, Kahlon's candidacy would see the Left-Center bloc getting 49 mandates and the rightist bloc – 43 mandates. The blocs do not include Kahlon, Shas and Independence. If he decides not to run, the Left would get 57 Knesset seats and the Right 48.

Kahlon himself is set to announce his decision on Sunday. "In any case I won't return to the Likud," he told his associates.

Asked how he explains the overwhelming support he is getting in the polls he said, "Seventy percent of the Israeli public is to the right in political issues and 70% is to the left on social issues. I'm right in the middle. Both in the political Right and the social Left."

He appeared unenthusiastic about the possibility of joining forces with the Labor or with Tzipi Livni. His associates said that he faces two options: running as the head of a party with a social agenda or going ahead with his original retirement plan and starting an AMP program in Harvard in April.